


Pleiades

by martialartist816



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Confessions, F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 07:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16909149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martialartist816/pseuds/martialartist816
Summary: Scorpia never thought that one day, being a princess meant she couldn't have Catra anymore.





	Pleiades

Her castle wasn’t much to look at, but at least she had the meadow at the north border. It was there Scorpia went to pretend she wasn’t a princess, where she could lay in the grass and stare at the sky. Arms behind her head, Scorpia watched the stars without thinking of much at all. They were just pretty and very far away.

She heard Catra before she saw her. The feline jogged up the hill, the sound of her panting breath getting louder and louder until her fluffy hair poked into Scorpia’s line of vision.

“Hey,” Scorpia greeted.

Catra bent over her knees to catch her breath. As soon as she could stand upright, she crossed her arms and leaned on one leg. She raised the eyebrow of disapproval.

“I woke up, and you weren’t there,” she said in a cold, accusing tone.

“I wanted to come outside, but I didn’t want to wake you,” Scorpia explained with a smile.

“I’m supposed to guard you.” Catra sat next to Scorpia, elbows resting on her knees. She hadn’t even changed out of her pajamas. At least Scorpia had the forethought to wrap herself up in a robe before stepping outside.

“Technically only in emergencies. And when I leave the castle. But this garden is still, technically, on castle grounds,” Scorpia reasoned.

“ _Technically_ , you should stop explaining the fine print and tell me why you’re even out here.”

A breeze washed over them. While it wasn’t particularly cold, Catra’s shoulders shook, and she covered her bare arms with her hands. Scorpia sat up and pulled the tiny cat into her lap. Catra fit perfectly between her legs. Scorpia opened up the robe, pulling Catra against her, back to chest, and closed the robe again. With the soft fabric and Scorpia’s arms surrounding her, Catra could be warm.

“You can’t guard very well if you’re shivering so hard I can hear your bones knocking together,” Scorpia said, face half buried in Catra’s hair.

“Shut up, I’m not even cold.”

Scorpia tightened her arms. “Mhmm.”

“Quit avoiding the subject. Something’s on your mind, isn’t it?” Catra was always good at reading her. It went both ways, actually. Scorpia could read Catra too, which was why she wanted to avoid the interrogation.

“Can’t a princess want to look at the stars without an ulterior motive?”

“Sure, if you weren’t losing sleep over it because it’s a ridiculous hour in the morning.” Catra placed her hands over Scorpia’s forearms. They looked so small by comparison. She half turned, locking onto Scorpia’s face. “Did you get any sleep at all tonight?”

Scorpia didn’t want to tell her no, when in reality she’d left shortly after Catra passed out.

“A little,” she said.

“So are you going to tell me what’s wrong? Or will I have to make up an excuse to your parents why you’re going to fall asleep during today’s military meeting?” Catra wore a frown. It reminded Scorpia that Catra was less so authoritarian she wanted to be and more so doting like a hen. Or a mother cat.

“There’s nothing you need to worry about. I promise.” It was the best thing to say because it wasn’t really a lie. Catra shouldn’t worry.

She seemed to accept the answer for now, at least. Crossing her arms again, she turned back around to lean against Scorpia’s chest and angle her head toward the sky.

“Do you know why I like to look at the stars?” Scorpia asked softly.

“Because you’re a big sap?”

Scorpia laughed at the irony that was about to be her response. “Because they remind me of your face.”

She raised her arm and tapped one claw against Catra’s cheek, right over her freckles. Catra didn’t look at her, but she didn’t pull away either.

“Let’s go back to bed,” Catra murmured. “It’s gonna be your fault when I’m cranky in the morning.”

“You’re always cranky.”

Scorpia stood and gently set Catra back down. As soon as her feet touched the grass, Catra darted toward the castle. Scorpia shouted in surprise and dashed after her, determined to not let her win the race back to their bedroom.

…

Scorpia spent all day exhausted, which she should have seen coming. When she heard the news the day before, it felt like she wouldn’t be able to sleep with all the new thoughts and worries running through her head. After that first sleepless night, things flipped in the opposite direction. Sleep seemed to be calling her name, and she wanted to answer it, if only to take a break from everything going on in her head.

Immediately after dinner, she washed up and retreated into her bedroom.

Catra found her in bed not long after. Scorpia sat up, ready to face the inevitable. There was no way to avoid Catra’s worry this time, not with how she uncharacteristically skipped dessert to make an early meeting with her pajamas.

Scorpia had spent all day mentally preparing how she would tell her, but the words were still hard to arrange.

In the static silence between them filling long seconds, Scorpia found her courage.

“You were right last night,” seemed like a good place to start. “There’s something on my mind.”

Catra padded over to the bed and sat down, facing Scorpia. Her expression softened considerably, now that she was done being annoyed about her clamming up and genuinely concerned something might have been wrong.

She placed a hand on Scorpia’s knee. “Whatever it is, I’ll kill it.”

The words brought a smile to Scorpia’s lips, and she powered through. She took a deep breath, eyes down. “I love that you’re so protective of me, but this isn’t the kind of thing that a royal guard can fix. And I don’t need my guard right now. I need my friend.”

Catra scooted even closer, both hands placed firmly on Scorpia’s shoulders. When she met her eyes, there was fear behind the ferocity.

“I’m here, Scorpia. I always am. You can tell me anything,” she assured.

“Yesterday, my parents talked to me about my duties as a princess. They reminded me that this kingdom would be mine one day, and that I have a responsibility to serve our citizens.” Suddenly, she couldn’t look Catra in the eyes anymore. She had to take another deep breath before pushing the next words out. “They want me to get married. They’ve… given me a fiance.”

Where Scorpia expected an explosion, there was nothing from Catra. Her hands fell away from Scorpia’s shoulders, and when she looked up, Catra’s ears were pinned back. She stared at the bedsheets like she wanted to rip them to shreds, like cutting them to ribbons would remedy things because Catra had a tendency to think violence solved problems.

“Married?” Catra finally said, hands balling into fists. She sniffled.

“Catra…” Scorpia leaned in and touched underneath Catra’s chin to lift her head. She had been ready for anger; she was nowhere near prepared for tears.

“Do you have any say in this?” she asked, voice sounding small. Scorpia shook her head. “Do you… Do you even want this?”

“I don’t, but there’s nothing I can do.” Born a princess, Scorpia was ruled by her duties. She had to focus on the bright side. It wasn’t death. It wasn’t like she had to be separated from Catra forever. They could continue to live exactly the same, but something about getting married to someone else felt wrong. Disconnected. Ever since she was a child, Scorpia always imagined the person she spent the rest of her life with was going to be Catra.

Scorpia held Catra’s wrist to try and ground her. Both of them, really.

Eventually, Catra met her eyes again.

“Have you met this person before?”

Scorpia nodded. “Her name is Beatrice. She’s…” Scorpia searched for a nice word that could describe a person she always felt indifferent toward, even after the betrothal, “tiny.”

“Do you love her?”

“No.”

“Do you love me?”

The question gave Scorpia pause. She wondered in what way Catra meant, whether platonically or something more. But it took no longer than a short second for Scorpia to realize that at every angle, her answer was yes.

“I do.”

“Then why are you letting this happen?” Catra sat up on her knees so they were eye-to-eye. Her lips pressed in a hard frown, like she was squeezing them together so they’d wouldn’t quiver.

“I’m not letting anything happen.” Scorpia couldn’t stop to ponder who true that statement was, how much autonomy she had in the matter. “I don’t want to get married. I never thought about needing someone by my side to help me rule one day. To be honest, I don’t think I ever really wanted to be a princess. But I can’t choose--”

She hadn’t seen Catra swooping in close, wasn’t ready for when she interrupted her by sealing their lips together. Catra was leaning over her, one hand on Scorpia’s shoulder to support herself. Scorpia was still gripping her wrist, and when she finally closed her eyes into the kiss, she relaxed her claw and slung her arm around Catra.

There were fireworks, so Scorpia figured it wasn’t so cliche to dream about after all. It couldn’t have lasted long at all, but every second of it felt right. The warm, aggressive push of Catra’s mouth against her own made her feel like she was floating on a cloud. Her heart sung, and she didn’t care if Catra made fun of her for thinking so. What was it they said about a princess and true love’s first kiss?

By the time Catra pulled away, she had somehow gotten her way into Scorpia’s lap. Scorpia touched her forehead to Catra’s, staring at her lips. It was so quiet for a moment that she thought she heard Catra’s frantic heartbeat in her chest.

“I can’t let you get married. Maybe you don’t have a say in it, but I do,” Catra said with so much conviction that Scorpia actually believed her. “I love you too much.”

Scorpia wasn’t sure if Catra’s feelings made things better or worse. Deciding to think about that later, she smoothed over Catra’s hair, petting it.

“I’m really sleepy.”

“Go to sleep,” Catra said in a soft voice, the kind that Scorpia didn’t hear very often. “No bad dreams tonight. I’ll figure out a way to get you out of this.”

“Thanks, Catra.”

Exhaustion pulled her back down to bed. She curled up on her side, wondering if Catra really did have the power to chase her bad dreams away.

Instead of crawling to the foot of the bed like usual, Catra wormed her way under the covers and cuddled up next to Scorpia, face buried in her chest.

…

She woke up to the sight of Catra making a blur of herself in their room. The feline darted from wardrobe to wardrobe, grabbing random things and shoving them into a wrinkly duffel bag.

Scorpia sat up on one arm, rubbing her eyes with the other. “What time is it?”

“About four in the morning.”

Now that Scorpia was a little more awake, she could tell that the things Catra packed were clothes, both of theirs. She also noticed for the first time that Catra was already dressed, not in her guard uniform, but in her casual day clothes.

“Are we going somewhere?”

“We are, and we need to get moving before your parents and the rest of the kingdom wake up.”

Their conversation from the night before started reemerging to the forefront of Scorpia’s mind. She told Catra about the arranged marriage. She told Catra about her true feelings. That kiss…

“We’re running away…” she sounded out loud.

Catra stopped packing long enough to stand in front of the bed and run her fingers through Scorpia’s bedhead. Her claws scratched nicely against her scalp. Scorpia looked up at her to find her wearing a confident grin, almost a smirk, but also full of love.

“I told you I’d be getting you out of this. I keep my promises.”

Scorpia smiled, allowing herself to feel hope. “Where are we going?” After the question left her mouth, she wondered if the answer even really mattered.

“Somewhere we can be ourselves. Somewhere you don’t have to be a princess.” Catra pulled her hand away from Scorpia’s hair in favor of using it to cup her cheek. “We’re going to the Horde.”

Scorpia’s eyes widened at the word, but not in fear. The Horde, where rebels fought for equality and opposed monarchy, where leadership didn’t come from birthright but instead was earned through discipline and success. With the Horde, Scorpia could be a faceless soldier instead of a future queen. Catra’s decision was actually… genius.

Finally, what always felt so wrong about taking a throne one day, Scorpia felt in her gut that her destiny waited for her on the other side. And if Catra was there with her the entire way, well, nothing could be more perfect.

“Is that something you want?” Catra asked when Scorpia forgot to respond, too busy thinking about how elated she was.

“How is it you know what’s best for me even better than my own parents do?” Scorpia hugged Catra around her waist, bringing her close.

Catra’s arms circled around Scorpia’s shoulders. Her face disappeared in her neck, and when she spoke, her words were small and muffled. “Because I’m your best friend.”

Something vibrated rhythmically against Scorpia’s body. She felt Catra tense up and hug her even harder. When it clicked, she smiled.

“I haven’t heard you purr in a long time.”

Catra pulled away, her adorable freckled cheeks red. “Come on. Let’s find out if we still know how to sneak out this window.”

**Author's Note:**

> scorpia is my WIFE and i will protect her with my LIFE
> 
>  
> 
> [hang out with me on tumblr](http://regiaam.tumblr.com/)


End file.
